Home ›

Linux on the Desktop--an Impossible Dream?

May 30, 2001  By Bryan Pfaffenberger
 in
Microsoft isn't the only corporation dissing Linux these days Joining the corporate chorus is Steve Smith, a Dell manager, who doesn't believe that there's much of a future for Linux on the desktop. "It's still a fundamentally technical operating system," Smith says.. "It's very easy for someone who doesn't know what they're doing to break. It's not designed for the novice user."
______________________

Comments

Comment viewing options

Select your preferred way to display the comments and click "Save settings" to activate your changes.

Re: Linux on the Desktop--an Impossible Dream?

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Mon, 11/10/2003 - 03:00.

Here I am reading this article near the end of 2003 and the predictions look pretty on target. Microsoft did succeed in cutting down on consumer copying, with its activation technologies, and there's a lot of push/pull towards the Linux desktop, which, in the meantime, has matured considerably.

I just upgraded from Mandrake 9.1 to 9.2, and the KDE 3.1 desktop is smoother than ever. I lost some icons and sound, during the upgrade but just using GUI-based tools, got everything back. Not any harder than tweaking the Windows registry (ugh).

So Bryan, congrats on a well thought out argument that appears to have been prescient.

PS: It was fun reading about WordPerfect 4.2 again -- brought back the memories (ah, Reveal Codes...)

Re: Linux on the Desktop--an Impossible Dream?

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Wed, 02/27/2002 - 03:00.

As an IT consultant, I'm reading this via my first install of Red Hat 7.2 and I believe your right on the money. For the small and mid-sized businesses I support, once they realize they can't take their software home and install it on their home computers, or use one copy of office and install it on 50 workstations, the pull will be there.

I for one am migrating to Linux so that I can be ahead of the curve and lead my clients to Linux. The only hurdle that remains is software to some extent. The basics are covered, e-mail, browsing, etc. Unfortunately, some apps though will require some hurdles to get through, e.g. Quickbooks, etc. I know there are some great accounting applications that run on Linux, but ultimately the client is going to want Quickbooks.

Great article and insight!

Re: Linux on the Desktop--an Impossible Dream?

Anonymous's picture
Submitted by Anonymous on Thu, 02/07/2002 - 03:00.

You opened my eyes to see a brighter future. You are so right, and I hope that the guys at MS won't wake up too soon.

Webcast
More Resources
How to Build an Optimal Hadoop Cluster to Store and Maintain Unlimited Amounts of Data Using Microservers

Realizing the promise of Apache® Hadoop® requires the effective deployment of compute, memory, storage and networking to achieve optimal results. With its flexibility and multitude of options, it is easy to over or under provision the server infrastructure, resulting in poor performance and high TCO. Join us for an in depth, technical discussion with industry experts from leading Hadoop and server companies who will provide insights into the key considerations for designing and deploying an optimal Hadoop cluster.

Learn More

Sponsored by AMD

White Paper
More Resources
Red Hat White Paper: Using an Open Source Framework to Catch the Bad Guy

Built-in forensics, incident response, and security with Red Hat Enterprise Linux 6

Every security policy provides guidance and requirements for ensuring adequate protection of information and data, as well as high-level technical and administrative security requirements for a system in a given environment. Traditionally, providing security for a system focuses on the confidentiality of the information on it. However, protecting the data integrity and system and data availability is just as important. For example, when processing United States intelligence information, there are three attributes that require protection: confidentiality, integrity, and availability.

Learn more about catching the bad guy in this free white paper.

Learn More

Sponsored by DLT Solutions